Unfortunately, things like this are not uncommon. 99% of prostitutes/strippers have a history of some type of abuse (usually sexual). Because of this, they lose their self worth and it's easy for others (like pimps) to prey on their vulnerability. If anything, the cinema downplays the scope of prostitution/stripping by making it seem like the only girls that do that are whores that just like attention which can't be farther from the truth.
- Comment by bwkshawna 1 year ago

Yes, there are women like this song describes, my sister being one of them.
She was removed from my mothers home during a custody dispute because of allegations of abuse. In a broken system, unfortunately it worked to some extent. Though her fathers family did not gain custody, my mom did lose custody. She was shuffled through 5 foster homes in 3 years before she was finally adopted at 5. In two of those foster homes she was raped and molested repeatedly. Needless to say these experiences made her incapable of love, she could only use people the way she was used. She started stripping at 18 and was selling her body by 20. She never stuck around for "the morning". She abandoned her fiancé and her two sons when the youngest was only 6 months old to go back to stripping and prostituting. Two more babies were born to her by men she didn't even know. She moved with the two children she had to New Orleans so she could make more money being a prostitute. One month later her body was found in an abandoned building with her throat cut. It was her 28th birthday. Her name was Erin Ball and the case is still unsolved.
So no, women like the one described are not a concoction of Hollywood.
- Comment by NatashaB 1 year ago

Mr_Voodoo- the scarlet letter seems most likely a literary reference to the classic book about adultery. If nobody in the place would understand the guy as much as the girl in the scarlet letter, it suggests that he is seeking an affair and she knows it because she has done so in the past, and recognizes his behavior. That may be reading a lot into it but it is the only reference I can make out of it. There aren't any other scarlet letters that would be worn by a girl that I can think of.
- Comment by abbottmd 1 year ago

My main question about the song is; What is the scarlet letter? I absolutely love this song and would love even more to know more about the backstory
- Comment by Mr_Voodoo 2 years ago